Gigglebellies

Hello friends! I have not had the time to sit down and blog, but of course, on a Saturday night, why not!

Here is who takes up most of my time: my sweet baby Lily!! Already 5 months old!

 

And I had my 28th birthday:

 

I first have to begin my blog post about something that is very dear to my heart (and my kinders)... Gigglebellies! Have you heard of Gigglebellies? If not, you need to check them out! Gigglebellies is made up of some wonderful animal characters that are upbeat, fun, and sweet! Some of my kids' favorites are Kissy Moo, Bucky, Peanut, Teeny Weeny Spider, and Fribbets!

Gigglebellies was created by 2 best friends and let me know tell you, some of the nicest gals I have ever met.  I bought the second DVD because those are the songs that my kiddos were most interested in.. I can't wait to save up to buy more!  To check them out, they have many videos on youtube as well.. along with previews to their songs (those are what sold me)... My students' youtube favorites are :

Old McDonald

Peanut

Wheels on the Bus 

(I just saw that the Wheels on the Bus song has over 81 million views! WOW!)

Definitely how we begin our day every day, and a good investment to look into.  The creators, Kerry and Pauline, are so sweet and enthusiastic.  They want nothing more than to get children excited about learning and movement!

[The creators of Gigglebellies did NOT ask me to write this blog post, it was completely voluntary on my behalf to share my love of this music!]

What are you doing with your kiddos for Thanksgiving?  A little head start I gave my kiddos is Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving Unit... we made Long-legged turkeys! They absolutely loved this, and Deanna's unit was very easy to follow and I was able to switch out some of the materials to meet my needs :) 

 

Don't forget! My Educents Grade 3-4 ELA Bundle is out and if you purchase (ANYTHING) on Educents of 10$ or more, you receive 5$ off towards a future purchase : ) 

Hope you can check it out!

ELA Curriculum Bundle Grades 3-4 and a GIVEAWAY

I am so very excited to be teaming up with an amazing group of educators and top sellers to put together a variety of Language Arts materials! This bundle is perfect for grades 3 and 4.  I am so blessed to be a part of this FANTASTIC resource!

Very excited to be a part of the bundle with Educents!  I have not one, but TWO resources featured in this bundle!  I know you will love my Figurative Language Pack and my Fourth Grade ELA Common Core Pack!

The Figurative Language Pack is perfect for teaching students about the terms simile, metaphor, alliteration, hyberbole, personification, alliteration, and idiom. I even have included a few pages on imagery as well to help your kiddos with adjectives and creating mental pictures : ) Lots of different literary device games and centers!

My Fourth Grade Common Core ELA Pack contains fun posters, analogy task cards, a genre matching game, and activities and printables with vocabulary, inferences, drama, poetry and prose! This is a pack full of fun activities that will get your children excited about learning (while being aligned directly with the Common Core)

There are many other products in our bundle to get your kids learning!  

Centers, printables, vocabulary, book studies, interactive notebooking and so much more!

Head on over to The Fabulous Life of an Elementary Teacher by clicking on her button- I am very lucky to have collaborated with the lovely Lacey!

But that's not all!   Since you are on my blog I would like to give you a chance to win something extra for free!  Please follow me or pin something or shout it out on FB and enter to win any item from my store. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The deal won't last long so head over now!

Weather, Apples, and Freebies

Hello from the world of Kindergarten! We have been studying weather, and I just had share this adorable FREEBIE with you from the fantastic Laura Martin : ) This can be used with many grade levels depending on what you would like them to learn (and write) about each weather word! Some of my kinders' writing is really coming along, and they thought of each definition by themselves.  They were so proud!

 

Who doesn't love Cara Carroll? She is so talented and friendly, and oh so cute! I LOVED her Write the Room activities! My kids enjoyed finding the words around the room as something fun to do!  It really motivates some of my friends that don't love writing yet : )

Deanna Jump, an inspiration, a star! She has the best products, you have to agree! Her Halloween Math and Literacy Unit is just as fabulous as all of her others... I know she is so successful because each holiday or themed unit is just as creative and great as the next.  Thank you Deanna for making Kindergarten so wonderful for me and my children this year!

  

Check out my TPT STORE for my updated products and newly listed ones.. there are a few great Kinder freebies too! : ) 

And just a little side note, my coworkers and I got a Keurig, and these Half-Caff's are PERFECT for me.... yay! : ) Hope everyone is enjoying their October!

Here's my little baby Lily.. she's getting so big! I love her so much and I am so blessed to have her : )

Community Helpers and ABCs

In Kindergarten we just finished  our Community Helpers unit.  I LOVED Simply Kinder's Community Helper Interactive Journals... my students had so much fun with them and felt VERY accomplished after finishing : ] They were so proud!

 

I wanted to take so many pictures of the cherished kinder work, but I forgot and they all took them home :[ Lucky for me, one student didn't check his mail box so I got some shots ;]

We have been using Scholastic's ABC Books and my kids love them.  I have been using them daily because my kiddos have caught on very quickly with the alphabet, and most of them already recognized most if not all letters.  I love these books because it is easy to differentiate with each child - Each booklet allows the students to write/draw what they learned about that letter.  My kinders write down words and pictures, words, or just pictures for the letter.  I praise them no matter what level they are on!  And as you can see below, I will occasionally give a treat or do something special for a letter :]

 

 I just introduced Word Work into our Daily 5 routine... the students are VERY excited.. they love the magnet letters (with the cookie sheet), foam letters for making words (and as you can see below, they can give themselves a star or other picture to show they completed a word!) and using dry erase is always a big hit as well :] I LOVE teaching Kindergarten because I love to give them so much praise and show them that they can do anything... many of them are just learning to read and this world of Kinder is so new to me, but exciting and EXTREMELY rewarding!

Today was National Bosses Day and my kiddos and I decorated this piece of wood for the director of our school.  We finished it with their names and a kind message, but I wanted to show you the basis for our creation - finger paint! I drew out the outline for the grass, but the kiddos just went crazy with paint on their little fingers and made these adorable flowers :] easy and fun, and can be used for a gift for just about anyone :]

 

I have created a few more Kindergarten products for Halloween.. Hope you can check them out! One of them being a freebie!

Craftivities and Fire Prevention Week

Hi all! I haven't blogged in so long.. how is everything going? I am very busy! Besides entertaining my kindergarteners and tutoring and teaching a little bit of piano, I have my beautiful baby Lily- she's almost 13 weeks now : ) getting so big and still oh so smart!

 

A Common Core concept for Kindergarten is visualizing - I created this off the top of my head while reading a book about friends on a playground.. the students listened to me read the story 2 times, and they visualized what they heard from the story, and draw/wrote about it : ) Where the smiley faces are eventually were pictures of their cute, smiling faces.  They loved it!

 Who doesn't love Zero the Hero? : ) My kinders love announcing wherever he "is"... we often see him in calendar when we are counting by 10's on our 100 chart... but he can show up at any time! This is a wonderful freebie from Foxwell Forest : ) Definitely show her some love if you download!

 Fire Prevention Week was this week... we had a firefighter visit our school and I made sure to do fun activities with my kids.  They each wrote a fire safety tip to add to their portfolio.  A lot of them said that fire is only for grown ups.. but they were pretty creative (see below: Don't mess with fire hydrants!)  This adorable freebie can be found here from Jane Loretz!

 Another great freebie that my students enjoyed was from Sara Connell: Stop, drop, and roll crowns! My kids have been wearing them proudly all week!  Also, there were these cute printouts that the nursery teacher showed me with gluing spots on a dalmation from 1-4.  I decided with my kindergarteners since they were doing great with numbers, we would count 11-14 spots using q tips and black paint! They loved it and it was a challenge for them to keep track of counting and place the black spots on nicely. 

 So excited for this activity from All Students Can Shine! Her craftivities are some of the cutest I have ever seen.  You HAVE to check them out : )

For now, I must go to bed.. I have been working hard all day and I need some energy for my kinders tomorrow! Thank you so much for being a follower and sticking with me.. I will hopefully have more time to post soon :) I am hoping to have a HUGE birthday giveaway in November so be on the look out for that ;) 

Here are a few new products I just updated onto TPT:

I would love for you to become a follower on TPT... my goal is to get to 1,000 followers! I am about 100 away, but hopefully it will happen within the rest of 2013 :) :)

 

Literacy and Fall Sale

Hi everybody! How are you? My Kindergarten schedule is kicking my butt! I absolutely love it, but I try to put 150% into my day, and it leaves me tired and not much energy to blog.. so I apologize for that!

I wanted to share a few pictures with you all from what we have been doing in K : )

Since it was Johnny Appleseed's Birthday on 9/26, it was only appropriate that we paint apples and watch a youtube video about Johnny Appleseed ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=484AJlOnOnc)

Read with Me ABC had a great product on TPT (for free!) to go along with Wemberly Worried.  I love this book so much, maybe because I am a worrier and can relate ;) Check it out! My kiddos had so much fun making Wemberly! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Wemberly-Worried-Back-to-School-Activities-800617 

 

Do you know the author David Wiesner? Well, let me tell you.. I learned about him in 2008 while I was finishing my masters, and I absolutely LOVE the illustrations and imagination in Flotsam.  This is a book I am so glad I bought because ANY AGE LEVEL can appreciate this picture book..

 

Has anyone heard of Laurie Berkner? She makes amazing songs for younger students! My kids love "Victor Vito" so I made up a quick template using my girl Kimberly Geswein's fonts and had them tell me how they would make Victor Vito spaghetti.. I sure have some chefs in the making! ;)

And who doesn't love Mo Willems?! Can you say... MY FAVORITE? 

 

What an amazing writer and illustrator.. did you know that Mo Willems makes his illustrations easy for kids to copy?  Well, I tested this out and drew the pigeon from "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" and the kids did AMAZING... see below! I was SO proud of them, but more importantly, they were proud of themselves.

Another classic that we read 2 weeks ago was Rainbow Fish : ) The students made these adorable rainbow fish (using construction paper and aluminum foil!)

 

 

FALL IS MY FAVORITE SEASON...

Not only will it be my 28th birthday on November 10th, but I also love getting excited about the holidays : ) The weather is crisp and the colors are beautiful.  Me and my significant other's anniversary also falls in fall (hehe) It'll be 4 years! : ) Time sure flies...

To celebrate FALL I will be throwing a sale from 9/30-10/2 at my TPT store....20 % the entire store! I hope you can pick up some Common Core activities or Fun printables to add to your collection ;) Thanks so much for all you do to support me! I love you all!

Cute graphic from my friend Jessica Benson : ) The Littlest Scholars

More pictures of my 2013 Kindergarten classroom

I have more pictures from my classroom : ) I finished my first week and I am TIRED... I felt like I had a little bit of a sore throat, so I decided to sleep in today after taking out my new puppy (Lily)... and then I took a cat nap later today.. I must've slept a total of 15 hours between the whole thing! I was a little more exhausted than I thought ;) I have a wonderful group of Kinders and I am very excited for this year.  A great start!

I couldn't re-find these adorable Table labels on TPT :( but they were so cute for my kiddos to put their books in for math and daily 5)

Here is our Clipchart that I created : ) You can find it HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers

I found these adorable labels on TPT found HERE [freebie!] and they were editable so besides saying "I am o-fish-ally in Kindergarten" I personalized them. So cute!

Here is one of my favorite areas - calendar! I have used so many amazing products for calendar.. one of them includes Georgia Grown Kiddos and her Calendar Time and Morning Meet Activities... I am in love! Couldn't have asked for a better product at the time!

From my Good Enough Teacher, there are some great calendar sets! I love the pink and blue stars and apple set that can be found HERE, but you can also buy her calendar deluxe bundle that she has! So cute, and EVERY holiday and special occasion is featured.

 

Here is my classroom library and book bins.. I am working on building a bigger library, but with only 12 kids, I don't need too much : ) There is always the library!

My wonderful friend Primarily Au-Some has these great classroom
jobs available (check them out here) I love how she used Melonheadz graphics because she's amazing too! It's cute and easy for my Kinders! Lots of jobs to choose from :) Sarah also has these adorable chevron labels that I used for my classroom supplies!

 

 I made these labels myself using cute chevron borders from Ashley Hughes : ] she has wonderful, wonderful products! And 61 freebies! Can you say generous?

And my schedule pieces that I will use year after year.. you probably have seen this product more than once, because I believe it is the #1 rated or downloaded product on TPT.. Cara Carroll is absolutely amazing, and her products are completely worth every penny.  However guess what?...these schedule cards are FREE.. free, yes I said it.  How great!

I just have to share some of my bulletin boards from this year thus far.. and all the pictures come from DEANNA JUMP.  She is the #1 seller on TPT for a reason - very talented, enthusiastic and sweet! 

These are the products that are featured below:

Literacy and Math Fun with Names

 Back to School Math and Literacy Fun 

Colorful Cats Math, Science, and Literacy Fun

And I also have to include her Chit Chat Messages that are perfect during Calendar time too : ) 

Aren't they so cute?! I am so proud of my kiddos...

I teach full-day Kindergarten and have 12 total students. Some of those students are "K wraps" which means that they come to me for only half the day for enrichment, and they go to their other school for half day kindergarten. I love that we offer full day kindergarten because the kids are totally capable and they do great things.  I love them!